Kolkata, July 4: Intensifying their efforts to hold tripartite talks on their demand for a separate state, the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha wrote to West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacherjee on Friday asking him to take an initiative in the matter.

“I have written a letter requesting the chief minister to arrange a tripartite meeting with the Centre. The letter is being faxed to CM’s office,” GJM President Bimal Gurung said from Darjeeling.

Bhattacherjee had asked the GJM delegation to communicate the GJM leadership’s views after returning to Darjeeling following the June 27 talks in Kolkata.

The chief minister had offered more autonomy and financial powers to the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council which the GJM has rejected.

Gurung made it clear that henceforth talks had to be held in Delhi and not in Kolkata. “How many times will we be go to Kolkata for talks?” The letter came a day before the GJM central committee is to hold a crucial meeting in Darjeeling on Saturday to decide whether the indefinite bandh would be resumed in Darjeeling hills.

Asked whether there would be further relaxation of the bandh, Gurung said “We will take a decision in our meeting tomorrow.” The relaxation of the bandh would expire on July five.

Gurung said “the Centre is in the dark about many things about the hills. The Morcha will submit all the documents and relevant facts in the tripartite meeting to keep the Centre posted on the Gorkhaland issue”.

Asked to comment on praise for the chief minister by some senior GJM leaders at a rally in Darjeeling yesterday, Gurung said “the chief minister is a gentleman, but it is to be seen how he solves the Gorkhaland issue.”

He said the state government was talking of restoration of normalcy in Darjeeling, but this would return only if Gorkhaland was created, he said. Meanwhile, GJM general secretary Roshan Giri said that the chief minister during the Kolkata meeting had agreed to tripartite talks.

“Dialogue on Gorkhaland should be opened and only a tripartite talk can solve the problem,” she said. (Expressindia)